Legal Briefs: News From Around NH

The state Housing Appeals Board has struck down the Epping zoning board’s denial of a variance to a developer that wanted to build a $75 million 315-unit multifamily housing project with 64 affordable units.

Following the decision, the developer, Tom Prieto, can now seek approval from the town planning for the project. The NH Union Leader reported that he expects to go before that board Jan. 12.

The zoning board had denied a variance that would have allowed Prieto to build three-story buildings on the site. The town ordinance sets a two-story maximum.

In its ruling, the appeals board said the record of proceedings “does not reasonably support the ZBA’s finding that the three-story variance would be contrary to the public interest due to public health and safety concerns.”

Candon to be induction in American College of Bankruptcy

Christopher Candon

Sheehan Phinney attorney Christopher Candon is set to be inducted as a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in an induction ceremony for the 34th class of the college at its annual meeting in March in Washington, D.C.

Candon is a shareholder of the firm and serves as chair of its Corporate Department. He focuses his practice on the problems of financially distressed companies, assisting clients with transactional and litigation matters involving commercial law and insolvency issues.

Three McLane attorneys admitted to Massachusetts Bar

McLane Middleton attorneys Connor W. Harding, Laura J. Raymond and Eleanor M. Walker have been admitted to the Massachusetts State Bar. Harding is an associate in the firm’s Litigation Department, where he represents clients in commercial, employment and education matters. Raymond is an associate in the Litigation Department and she represents clients in a variety of civil, commercial, employment and probate matters. Walker joins the firm as an associate in the Corporate Department, where she advises business clients on transactional matters related to contract drafting, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions.

NE Legal Foundation files amicus in fisheries case

The New England Legal Foundation is urging the U.S, Supreme Court to consider stopping the National Marine Fisheries Service from forcing fishing boat owners to pay the daily wages of federal inspectors, or “observers,” whom the fishing vessels must quarter and accommodate during their fishing trips.

In an amicus brief filed in the request for certiorari by plaintiffs in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. U.S. Secretary of Commerce, et al, NELF contends that Congress has only authorized NMFS, under the 1996 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act – the primary law that governs marine fisheries management in U.S. federal waters – to require that at-sea observers “be carried on board” domestic fishing vessels “and nothing more.”

Amicus brief author, NELF Senior Staff Attorney Ben Robbins, said the Foundation is interested in this case, “because an administrative agency, acting without any identifiable statutory authority, has required certain fishing vessels within the already beleaguered New England herring fishery to pay the daily wages of federal inspectors, or ‘observers,’ whom the fishing vessels must carry on board during their fishing trips.”